Software: Oracle expands NFV push; NFV ecosystems abound

Software is becoming an increasingly important part of telecommunication networks and deployments as both wired and wireless carriers look to add functionality to operations while increasing simplicity and reducing costs. RCR Wireless News is keeping an eye on recent developments through its weekly “Software” wrap up.
—Oracle Communications this week unveiled its Application Orchestrator, which it said was designed to manage the lifecycle of virtualized infrastructure, as part of the push into network function virtualization.
Oracle said the platform can reduce deployment time for new network functions, allowing operators to roll our services quicker and improve efficiency. That efficiency is gained by monitoring performance indicators such as subscriber connection requests, and “automatically deploying virtual network functions to meet network capacity demand.”
The platform supports NFV architecture standards from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and Oracle said it “can integrate with multiple virtualization infrastructure managers to support a flexible, multi-cloud environment and help avoid vendor lock-in.”
—Oracle this week also announced plans to acquire Micros Systems, which is a provider of software and hardware solutions targeting the hospitality and retail sectors. The deal is valued at $68 per share, or $5.3 billion in total.
Oracle said the inclusion of Micros will extend its offerings into the hospitality and retail sectors, “combining Micros’ industry specific applications with Oracle’s business applications, technologies and cloud portfolio.” Oracle added that the combination will focus on helping “hotels, food and beverage facilities and retailers” to roll out new services for customers.
–Software provider Wind River recently launched its impressively entitled Titanium Cloud ecosystem program for its Carrier Grade Communication Server that was unveiled earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress event.
Wind River said the ecosystem program is designed to ensure the availability of interoperable hardware and software solutions for telecom equipment vendors deploying products based on NFV. The program currently has five participants: Brocade, Genband, Metaswitch Networks, Nakina Systems and Overture.
–In a separate announcement, Overture announced its Harmony ecosystem of hardware and software targeting NFV deployments. Similar to the Wind River announcement, Overture claims the program is designed to ensure compatibility between NFV solutions being provided by different companies.
Partners in the Harmony program include: Wind River, 6Wind, Aeroflex, Brocade, Dell, EnterpriseWeb, Intel, JDSU, Metaswitch and Qosmos.
Make sure to check out the latest in telecom related software news at RCR Wireless News’ dedicated software page. Also, if you have telecom software news to share, please send it along to: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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